Leadership & Character | Washington, D.C.

A group of Wake Foresters gathered over breakfast in Washington, D.C. on May 10, 2018 to discuss Leadership and Character.

Overview and highlights of our Call to Conversation:

• Our initial question – “describe a time when you saw character in action” – helped us focus on the outcomes such as building communities, helping people who are suffering or injured, helping people less fortunate, supporting people who are different; and acts of character often times included situations of great personal sacrifice, as well as simple acts of kindness.
• Another highlight in our discussion was the conversation about personal accountability. One of us asked, “Have we lost the obligation to be ethical with each other?”  Other thoughts included in this highlight had to do with personal credibility versus institutional hierarchy.
• We also explored such ideas as respect and fairness and discussed the aspiration of being able to disagree on ideas/issues but still respect the other person and their opinions.
• Wake Forest’s motto, Pro Humanitate, provided an opportunity to discuss our commitment to live out “service to others.”  We agreed that Pro Humanitate was an excellent motto for discussing character.
• We closed our conversation by talking about what we would want Wake Forest students to hear from our conversation.  A number of our group suggested such ideas as having a passion for giving back and serving a cause greater than ourselves. Another idea was to be respectful of the differences that separate us.